Hope
by fireflash166
Summary: AU: Emma Swan had found a life for herself in this post-apocalyptic world, only to wake up and find that she and many others had been victims of a terrorist attack, leaving them in a virtual world for three years. Now she must find a way to distinguish between what is real and what is not, or more importantly who. Full summary inside.
1. Prequel

Summary: Emma Swan became known as a respected leader of the few people left after the virus hit. This post-apocalyptic world was on the verge of being reconstructed, into one of hope. She had gone through so much after the virus hit, losing her family and friends to the disease with no cure, fighting for her own survival, finding a group of people who believed that a new world could be born again, and finding love. Her life had seemed so chaotic, yet meaningful, until she woke up to find out none of it was real. She and many people had been kidnapped by a group of terrorist forced to live in a virtual reality for the last three years. Some of the people she met were hook up to a machine liked her, other's never existed, now she lives with the memories, and wonders who was real, and what was just a dream. Will the battles of this virtual world find their way into reality?

**Author's note: So this is my idea of a new fic, it's kind of a mix of the tribe and once upon a time, though with my own twists. This is a Captain Swan fic, so most of the chapters will be centered around them, right now my plan is to have part flashbacks of the virtual world and moments of the present in reality. PLEASE REVIEW so that I know if I should continue. Thanks for reading and please ENJOY!**

Prequel

Emma's head began to pound, something was wrong. She hadn't felt like this since the virus has struck. It had come out of nowhere, no one had any warning. People would just get sick and start to die.

There was a moment that Emma thought she would die of it, She had been nearly paralyzed with migraines for days, not being able to eat, sleep, or move. She could just sit there in pain as she watched her parents fall victim of this mysterious virus. She wasn't able to help them, couldn't even move to close their cold blank eyes for days.

It had been years since then. She had built a new life for herself in this new world. It had been hard but it she was a survivor.

Just after the last of the victims had died, gangs began to take over the cities. Taking anyone they found as slaves.

Once Emma was well enough she packed up as many as her belonging as she could carry and began her trip out of the city.

She had run into a few interesting people while traveling. She oddly began to feel a sense of duty to these people and agreed to stay with them and from then onward they were their own tribe.

They stood up to the tribes bullying others and after some time, earned respects of almost every person left in the area. They had even started a government back up. Today was to be the election.

Emma was up for Sherriff, David was running for president. Two members of the same tribe in office would be good for them. After all the heartache and battles they had overcome, it was finally looking good.

Until the migraine came back, she had been preparing to visit the poles but became paralyzed with the same pain she had three years ago.

Her eyes grew wide as the thought came to her. It's back, it will all happen again, she would lose everyone she loved, and there was nothing she could do about it. Her head pounded louder and harder, the fear began to overtake her as she tried to cry out for the person she wished with all her might she could save. Killian. But before she could even make a sound, her world went black.

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The pounding in her head turned into beeping. She could feel something in her mouth, going all the way down her throat, it was almost choking.

She tried to cough, and felt it being lifted out. What was going on? She wanted to open her eyes but they felt so heavy.

After what felt like hours she was able to open them a crack, the light above was blinding, they haven't had electricity in years.

She looked to the side, only to see her parents, reaching out petting her hair.

So…she was dead…this was the afterlife, and once again darkness took her.

She was woken later by a pain in her arm. She opened her eyes to see a needle in her arm, someone who looked like a nurse from the old ages taking blood from her arm.

So many things were going through her head at this moment. She tried to pull her arms away only to find that she was strapped down. This did not help to calm her.

Suddenly a hand came down to try and stop her from fighting the restraints. Looking up she saw her father, the same man who had died right in front of her three years ago, only now he was alive.

"Emma, sweety, please calm down, you're ok, you're safe now."

**Authors Note: Ok so I know this is really short and doesn't really go into much, but I want to know what you guys think of the idea before I go into it. I have an idea of how it's going to go, it's just a matter of getting it all written now, once I get five reviews I will write the first chapter which will go into detail about her life in the virtual world, and how Killian comes into it, and it will explore how she and other's cope with learning that the life they have been living wasn't real at all. Please let me know!**


	2. Chapter 1

**Author's note: PLEASE READ! So the last chapter was the prequel in order to give you an understanding for the concept I'm going for. This is the first chapter and will revisit some of the things mentioned in the prequel except with more detail. Hope you all enjoy! Thanks for the review and follows!**

Chapter 1

"Emma wake up…Emma love you need to get up." She could feel his five o'clock shadow rub against her cheek as he tried to wake her with a kiss.

Groaning she gave in turning around but holding the covers closer to her, trying to conserve the warmth the bed had to give her.

He smiled down at her as she squinted, looking up at him.

"I don't want to get up, can't we just stay in bed all day."

He let out a laugh, she loved hearing him laugh, it always made her smile.

"As tempting as that sounds love, you have an election you have to go to. David head out to the polls an hour ago, he came by to see if you wanted to go together but I told him you needed your beauty rest, told him you had a tough night last night." And with a wink he stood up and began to walk towards where they kept their clothes.

Hmm. Tough night indeed. All Emma could hope for was that Killian didn't use and hinting gestures like the wink when David asked. The last thing she needed was another lecture from David about her relationship with a pirate.

She let out a sigh and forced herself out of bed and she began to find the most professional pieces of clothing she owned. Once she had picked out the old pair of jeans, blue top and red leather jacket, which had seen better days, she began to undress.

Killian was ready in his black pants and loose white shirt, which looked like it could have been from the middle ages. He put on his black leather vest, and once he had tied his boots, he looked up to Emma and gave her the smirk that always made her melt.

"I've got some business to do before the election love, you don't mind me meeting you there do you?"

"Since when do you ask me my permission to do anything?" She turned giving him a knowing expression.

He let out another laugh. "Since the last time I went to do some business I came back to a frantic blonde about ready to chop my head off."

"dealings with the east end has never gone well for anyone, and if I remember correctly the only reason you got out of there alive is because their leading lady thought you'd be fun to have around."

Talking about this made Emma cringe as she thought about that little pixies hands touching him.

"Yes, well my good charm and wit will get me anywhere, besides, I was able to break loose and get back to you wasn't I."

The smile Emma gave wasn't one of joy, more like try it again and see where you sleep for the next week kind of smile.

"I'm sorry love, today is not going to concern anything that could be dangerous, I just need to go out and speak to an old friend of mine and then I'll meet you at the polls and celebrate your victory over the Narcissus."

He always knew how to bring Emma back into a good mood. "His name is Sydney, and he is respected by many people in the city, there's a chance I could lose to him in this."

Killian gave a look of pure disgust. "He looks in a mirror every chance he gets, there is no way that you would lose to the likes of him. He may hold some respect in these parts but you hold more, or are you forgetting that you led the rebellion that freed the people from the Crusaders?"

She didn't feel like continuing the conversation from there, she began to dress. The times of the Crusaders had been tough, they were a cult that believed in a false god, one who had been a man she had known years ago. They worshipped him and were able to brainwash many scared people into becoming followers, and anyone who refused to accept their cause were taken as slaves, some even killed. It had only been a few months since their final defeat, the fact that they were no longer a threat and that rebels had won still felt too good to be true.

"I have to leave now love, I'll see you at the victory party. His kiss brought her back to reality and she watched him walk out the door. Her life had come so far since it had been crushed by the virus three years ago. There had been times where she believed that she was damned, that life would never be good again, yet here she was, she had come so far, and so had the world around her.

"Ahhh" She let out a cry and reached for her temple, a searing pain in her head began to intensify.

She hadn't had a pain like this in years, not since the virus had hit. The familiar pain only brought back the memory of other pains she had witnessed.

The first time this pain had come she had woken up with it, fallen out of bed and tried to reach her door to call for help, someone to take her to the hospital. It felt as if her entire brain was being fried, it was almost as her head was being burnt.

She once again fell to the floor, not being able to cope with the pain in her head, her vision began to blurr, things began to spin, she felt as if she would vomit.

It was as if it was all happening again. She saw it like it was yesterday.

Her parent's running into her room, trying to help her up, they dropped her and both began a fit of coughing. Her vision had been blurred at that point but she could see the blood running from their noses, splashing from their mouths as they coughed. They too fell to the floor, crumbling while reaching out to her, tears of blood falling from their eyes. Their faces held such fear, their bodies were in fits, they weren't able to breath. They had been reaching for her in their last moments, she who could do nothing but sit through her own pain and hell. She had sat their paralyzed for what felt like days, only able to stare into their cold dead eyes, the same image which continued to haunt her to this day.

The pain became worse; it was exactly the same as before. Her only thought was that the virus was back, it was hitting again, maybe this time, those who were immune before won't be so lucky this time around.

Her last thought before the world around her went black was of that gentle, suggestive smirk she had grown so used to waking up to. Killian.

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The pain in her head had dulled and turned into a slight ache. She could feel sheets surrounding her body, a soft pillow behind her head.

Someone must have found her and brought her back to bed.

Her mouth felt so dry, she tried to swallow, only to find something lodged in her throat blocking her gulp.

She began to panic, and reach for her mouth to take whatever it was out. She still didn't have enough strength to open her eyes but the panic of not being able to swallow made it where she could barely breathe.

She was too weak to bring her arm all the way up to pull at the object. There was another pair of hands holding hers down, while she felt the object being taken out of her mouth.

She gasped, still not knowing what was going on, still too weak to move.

There was a moment she could have sworn she had heard her mother's voice, calling out to her, calming her and felt her father's strong welcoming hands smoothing down her hair. But that wasn't possible, they had died years ago.

There was a beeping sound that wouldn't rest which brought her out of her sleep. She had always been a light sleeper; even the smallest sounds would wake her.

She felt a little bit more energized. She tried to lift her arm in order to bring it up to her head, but it seemed she was still too weak to move, her eyelids began to lift slowly. There was a bright light above her, so bright it reminded her of when they had electric lights. All the electricity had gone out after the virus hit, there weren't enough people left who knew how to keep it going.

She let out a gasp as she felt a stab to her arm, trying to bring her surrounding into focus, she turned her head to the side only to see a woman dressed as an old world nurse with a needle halfway sticking in her arm, blood being drawn out.

What was going on, Emma's mind went any and every direction, she began to fight, hoping to find some strength left in her to fight whatever was being done to her, she tried to lift her arm again, once again not able to lift it, she looked down to find that it wasn't her being too weak, she had straps around her wrists, binding her to the bed.

Her breathing became short and fast, the nurse grabbed her arm, extracting the needle, and tried to smooth the top of her arm as to calm her.

Emma's eyes remained wide with fright; the nurse let her go and ran to the hallway calling on somebody.

A man ran in, he wore blue scrubs and a white lab coat, just like an old world doctor would, this had to be a dream, this all had to be a dream.

He brought a mask to her mouth and spoke to her. Emma's mind was still fuzzy but she could make out the words breath, and so she did. Her breathing began to slow and she felt herself calming a bit.

She was still disoriented as she saw to figures running into the room. Looking to them, she saw her mother and father, both very much alive.

The doctor turned to them and began to speak, she could only make out a few words, but none that were able to make much sense to her especially in the state she was in.

Once again she let the darkness take her over.

It was a burning sensation to her temple that woke her this time. She once again tried to reach for her head. She remembered the bindings she had seen before, not knowing if it was a dream or not she tried to pull her arm up.

She was still bound. Though this time, she felt a hand reaching for hers and felt the bindings come loose, She lifted her hand to touch the spot that burned. There was a small hole in the flesh of her temple, no bigger than the end of a ball point pen, but the skin around it felt chard, as if it had literally been burned.

She opened her eyes and saw her father standing over her.

"I'm I dead?" the words came out weak, on the other side of the bed her mother brought a Styrofoam cup full of water to her lips. She accepted it, and laid her head back down, squeezing her eyes shut trying to make sense of what was going on.

"Emma, sweetie, how do feel?" Her mother's voice was a sweet a she remembered, so comforting.

"Mom? How…" She felt tears forming from her eyes as she looked at the two people she had lost all those years ago.

"Mrs. Swan, may I please talk to your daughter, others have awoken and been telling us some things, I think it best we explain to her and you what it is she's been going through these past three years."

Emma looked to the doctor who she remembered seeing earlier, all the stuff she had thought to be a dream, somehow it had all been real.

"Miss Swan, what I'm about to say is going to be very difficult to take in and accept. My name is Dr. Whale, I've been looking after you since you were rescued." He stood looking like the words he wanted to say were difficult to conjure.

"You and a number of others, have been the victims of a terrorist attack." He took a moment, allowing this small piece to sink in.

"Three years ago, many civilians were kidnapped by a terrorist group, you were all thought to be dead, thousands of people had just vanished in one night. Recently our government had discovered a terrorist nest and infiltrated it. They expected to find weapons of mass destruction, instead they found you. You and the other thousands who had been missing since what we call Mourners day three years ago. You were hooked up to machines, unconscious, it seems some kind of psychological experiments were conducted on you. From reports, it appears that you have all been, in consciousness, living in a virtual reality, at first we thought it was a different reality for each person, today we discovered that you all have been together, somehow, they were able to bring your consciousness together with other in this world. Some of the people you may remember meeting, were like you, victims."

He was right, this was going to be difficult to take in.

**Authors note: Ok so hopefully this wasn't too confusing for you guys. If it was please just let me know, I'll try and do better. The next few chapters will be about Emma and others trying to adjust to the world they thought had disappeared long ago, and it will have flashbacks of their virtual reality starting from the beginning of how they found each other. Please review and let me know what you think! Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 2

**Authors note: Ok so hopefully this wasn't too confusing for you guys. If it was please just let me know, I'll try and do better. The next few chapters will be about Emma and others trying to adjust to the world they thought had disappeared long ago, and it will have flashbacks of their virtual reality starting from the beginning of how they found each other. Please review and let me know what you think! Thanks for reading!**

**Note: Thank you so much for the reviews and follows. To answer a couple questions I've received. **

**In this story, David and Mary Margaret are not Emma's parents, but hopefully it will become apparent in future chapters that they do become a family in a sense. **

**Most of the main characters are young, early 20's (except for rumble of course) and I will reveal their actual ages and circumstances as the story progresses. **

**If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask! Thank you for reading!**

Chapter 2

It had been a week now since the doctor had told her about her circumstances. Emma still found herself finding it hard to accept. Every morning she would wake up thinking it had all been a dream, expecting to see Killian lying next to her, and every morning she had to remind herself about the last few days.

Emma's parent's had only left her side to get some clothes from the house and they traded off when leaving for meals. It didn't matter how often she assured them that she was fine to be left alone for a few hours, they refused to leave her side.

She was thankful for their company, and word could not express how wonderful it was to see them alive once more. Though there were moments where she wished for a moment of solitude, a moment to let everything sink in, a moment to collect her own thoughts.

Her head ran every direction she honestly didn't know how she was feeling.

She was still in the hospital so that the doctors could keep monitoring her closely. They had no experience with cases such as these and were not willing to take any risks. She had been allowed to step out of bed and walk around the room a bit. The doctors had been amazed at the amount of muscle mass her body had been able to maintain under the circumstances. Theoretically all of the victims should have little to know muscle left; not being able to use the body's muscles causes them to deteriorate.

It seemed that the machine they were all hooked up to was very advanced. Her parent's read all the news articles to her concerning what had happened. The machines would stimulate muscle movements throughout the body. They were kept nourished through and IV like tube, which apparently gave the body ever necessary chemical it needed in order to function properly. The charred marks on her temple had been where the computer was inserted, it was what sent all the information they wanted the brain know. It was how they created the reality.

One of the terrorists who had been captured in the raid had given a statement that it was an experiment to understand the human bodies response to chaotic circumstances, they had observed the brain and bodies reactions to certain things, and would bring new challenges to this world in order for more data. In short, he admitted that they wanted to test the human spirit, they wanted to know just how much humanity could take until every last person gave in, losing every last bit of hope they had left.

Upon hearing this, Emma felt a sense of pride in the fact that she knew they hadn't succeeded in this at least. Just before she had been rescued the entire city she had resided in seem to radiate hope, and happiness.

It hadn't always been like that though; there were times where it seemed there was no good thing left, moments where she herself had lost hope. Moment's like just after the virus had hit.

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**Just after the virus hit:**

It had seemed like days since Emma had been able to move her body from the floor, staring into the cold dark eyes of her parent's. When her arms had finally been able to move, she had reached out to them, still struggling with her aching body.

She had been able to wiggle towards them and closed their eyelids. Breathing heavily she began to weep as she had never wept before. This didn't make sense, why had this happened. She needed to find help.

She felt her body gain energy little by little as the hours past. Finally able to lift herself onto her feet, she struggled to walk, holding on to anything she could in order to keep her balance. She had to step over her parents whose bodies were blocking the doorway of her room.

She slipped on a couple steps as she made her way down the steps. Reaching for the house phone she dialed 9-1-1, only to find the line dead.

She moved to the kitchen to find her cell phone which she had left on charge the night before. The battery had been fully charged but it wouldn't allow her to make any calls. She reached for the lights, they would not turn on.

She moved towards the door, hoping to find help from neighbors when she heard cries from the streets. Cries of pain and agony.

"HELP! PLEASE HELP! THEY'RE DEAD!" These cries were repeated and echoed through what felt like the city itself.

It was then that Emma realized as she held the door knob and brought her head to the wood, it wasn't just her parents. It wasn't just her.

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A week or so after Emma had been able to move and heard the same thing that had happened to her parents had happened to others, there had been a knock at the door.

Her parents still lay where they had fallen, covered in a blanket, Emma knew she still didn't hold the strength to move them. She had chosen to sleep on the couch the night before.

The knock on the door had startled her, she found herself afraid to open it.

"Hello! We're collecting the dead to take down to the graveyard!"

Hesitantly Emma moved towards the door, grabbing her pepper spray as she moved closer, she opened the door a crack and saw a man by her door and a couple down at the end of her driveway by a black SUV.

"Hello mam, my names Leroy, my buddies and I are going around collecting the dead, hoping to give them, you know a proper funeral. You got anybody in this house you need us to take?"

Emma stared at the man before her with hesitant eyes, still not opening the door, holding tightly to the pepper spray in her hand hidden behind the door.

"We mean no harm mam, I swear, most people in town are too weak to carry the dead. It's not right to leave them like this."

There was a sense of sincerity in his voice and looking into his eye's Emma could see that he was telling the truth.

Nodding she opened the door a little wider allowing him and his friends entrance.

"Upstairs to the right, they're on the floor under the sheet. There are two of them." Leroy nodded and signaled for a couple of the men by the SUV to join him. They entered and followed her direction.

She watched as they had carried her parent out, thankful for the respect they were showing, they kept them covered with the sheets so that she would not have to look at their cold faces again. They lay them in the back of the SUV with a number of bodies already stacked on top.

Leroy turned to her before leaving.

"I'm sorry for your loss." He began to walk away but Emma wanted to know more.

"You said that you were going around town" He stopped and turned back to her

"Yes mam" She took a gulp.

"How many? How far has this gone?" Casting his eyes down he took a breath.

"As far as we can tell mam, it's been everywhere; there are only few of us left it seems."

She nodded, letting the sorrow sink in.

"If I were you miss, I'd get out of the city."

Looking to him, she saw a grave expression on his face.

"Why's that?"

"Rumor is that some gangs are starting up, they plan to take control of the city, and everyone in it. You'd be safer to leave now, head to the country. That's where the lads and I are heading as soon as we're done."

"Thanks for the warning."

She began to close the door.

"Good luck mam!"

She stopped the door a crack and gave a small smile, "You too." And closed the door.

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She still couldn't allow herself sleep in her bed that night.

Lying on the couch she looked towards the blank TV, trying to put her thoughts together.

She looked around the place she once called home, only to feel remorse and despair coming from it.

Leroy was right, it would probably be better to get out of the city, her dad had taken her camping every other month, and she was more than capable of living off the land.

She sat up, with her mind now set on heading out of the city, it would be better to leave sooner rather than later. She began to pack all she thought was necessary, by the time the sun came up it looked like she had as much as she could carry.

Time to leave.

It was hard looking around the place which had once held such happy memories, but it was time to leave it behind, because now all that was left was death.

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Emma was fit, but walking halfway across the city was exhausting. She'd forgotten how far it was to get through the city, she'd been used to driving through but she figured it would be better to stay on the low if she wanted to avoid the gangs Leroy had mentioned earlier.

The backpack she was carrying seemed to get heavier and heavier as she walked, she had to keep readjusting the straps to gain some comfort.

She gave in, found a bench nearby and decided to take a break. It was odd; she hadn't seen a single person since she left her house. Most people are probably staying in the safety of their homes, thinking back to it, part of her wished that she had stayed home, but deep down she knew she had made the right decision.

Out of nowhere a small boy came up and sat on the bench right next to her. She had never really been good with kids.

"Hi there." She felt so awkward waiting for the boy to reply, all he did was smile and look up at her.

"Are you lost?" still nothing.

All of a sudden screams could be heard from nearby. The young boy immediately grabbed her hand and began to pull her towards a small alley way.

"Whoa kid, where we going?" nope, nothing. What was she supposed to do, just leave the kid? Hopefully he's leading her to a place where someone knows him.

He pulled her through back alleys, and pushed through a rusty iron door. They ran through a parking garage and into another doorway.

"Kid slow down! Where are we going?"

"The bad guys are coming. I'm taking you somewhere safe." So it could speak.

Emma couldn't understand why she didn't stop at that moment and kept going on her way. She felt responsible for this kid and didn't want him to find any trouble. She just let him pull her along.

The screams had stopped but the kid kept pulling her along, for someone so short he could move pretty fast.

He had brought her through the parking garage into a small mall and then as quickly as they had been brought in.

They were brought back into an open road, they were still in the city but just outside of downtown now.

The boy led her towards what looked like a church, a really big church. He led her along the side of the building and came to a backdoor, an emergency exit.

To Emma's surprise it opened right up when the boy pushed it. He smiled up at her. "The whole buildings locked except this door, no one will get to us here."

Emma gave him a small smile in return and followed him into the building. She followed him through the halls, there were several doors along the hallway. Towards the end she found one of the doors open, inside was a bed, a dresser, and some clothes scattered around.

She realized then that it wasn't a church he had brought her to, it was a boarding school, this must have been the new boarding school that had just been open not a month ago. She had heard about how posh it was going to be, it wasn't a lie, the bedroom she had seen was almost as nice as her one back home had been, and the farther she walked the more elegant the place seemed to be.

They had walked through a sitting room, which had fancy furniture and some small marble statues. It didn't surprise her when they found a church hall, this had been a Christian boarding school after all. Emma herself never really found herself to be all that religious, she considered herself Christian but didn't really go to church, her parent's had wanted her to find her own path to God, in all honestly she still didn't know if she had found him yet, she believed, just hadn't found her faith yet.

They continued walking and then Emma heard what she thought to be laughter coming from the room up ahead.

The boy led her into a room that was dark, all the windows had been covered. She could barely make out that this was a library, what looked to be designed after the old fashioned ones they used to have in England at those old houses or castles as many would put it. The only source of light was a flashlight in the middle of the room and surrounding the beam of light were six people.

People was a loose term there, more like three maybe grown-ups and three children, probably the same age as the boy who had led her here.

They had all looked up to her and the boy as they stepped in, obviously disturbing what resembled a campfire story time.

One of them stood, pulled at a small rope, and suddenly a curtain that had been covering the ceiling went loose and fell to the side of the wall, revealing a class ceiling allowing the light to flow in.

Emma shielded her eyes from the light allowing them to adjust, she looked around and the room had indeed looked almost identical to the ones she had seen in pictures from old castles.

The woman who had pulled the curtain stood there looking at her with caution. Emma took a moment to observe her, not knowing if she'd be seen as an intruder or not, she'd have to find a way to get out if things got hostile.

The woman couldn't have been any older than Emma herself, she had jet black hair with a pixie cut, wore a knee length skirt and a cardigan. Yep, Emma had no doubt she could take her if need be.

"Mary Margaret, I brought my friend to stay with us!" The boy who had brought her here ran to the woman who had been watching Emma carefully, but now looked down to the boy and smiled.

"Henry, are you ok? You had us so worried." She gave the kid a hug and then looked up to Emma.

"She saved me from the Crazies." The boy gestured to Emma.

The smile on Mary Margaret's face was now directed to Emma, it was such a welcoming smile, it kind of made Emma feel uncomfortable, she had never really been good with people.

"Uh more like the kid saved me." Emma let herself give a shy smile.

Mary Margaret stepped forward and brought her hand out to Emma. "It's nice to meet you"

Emma accepted and shook her hand. "Emma."

Mary Margaret smiled back. "Emma, that's a lovely name. I'm Mary Margaret and this" she gestured to a girl with long black hair which held red highlights throughout, looked to be about 18. "is Ruby. This" now to a girl with blonde girl who also could have been in her late teens. "is Cindy" and then towards the three other children who had been sitting quietly in there spots staring at her in awe the entire time.  
"and these three are Hanzel, Grettle, and August." They all waved to her in greeting.

"and of course you've met Henry." The small boy came up to her and smiled.

"Hi, nice to meet all of you, listen I didn't mean to intrude, I just wanted to make sure the kid was safe, I'll just be on my way." She stared for the door but was stopped when Mary Margaret spoke.

"Oh please wait, at least let us give you some food, to thank you for helping Henry."

Emma knew that she should say know, she should leave now and continue on her way just like she had planned before, but something inside her made her feel like she needed to accept the offer. What could a small meal hurt anyway?

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Emma sat on her hospital bed thinking back to the first time she had met Henry, and Mary Margaret and the whole gang. That day had been a strange one indeed. After meeting them all in the library she had been led to a cafeteria area, it was stocked with canned foods. Mary Maragret had apologized for the food having to be eaten cold, all of the kitchen appliances had stopped working that morning. During their meal Emma learned that they were all students at the boarding school. Most of the students had either left to find their families or died with the entire staff of the virus. The older girls decided to stay with the young kids, knowing they had nowhere to go, all of their families lived far away.

Emma told them of her plans to leave for the country after hearing about the gangs in the city. Mary Margaret told her that she was welcome to stay with them, they had plenty of room for her.

Emma of course declined and asked how they fared with all the gang activities. So far the boarding school had been left alone, there had been some of the group who called themselves the Crazies, who had tried to get into the school, but all the doors were locked save the emergency exit she had come through, that had been a little hidden behind bushes so no one had found it yet.

They talked for hours about what was going on, and what it would mean for the future, so long that night had crept up on them. Emma accepted their offer of a bed but insisted it was only for that night. That one night had changed her life forever.

Emma smiled to herself thinking back on it. That had been the beginning of it all really. She looked to her parents in the chairs next to her and found them both asleep.

Emma looked to the door, she was sick of being cooped up in this room, she wanted to walk around, maybe it would help clear her mind a little more.

Carefully as not to wake her parents, Emma lifted the sheets and moved to the door, opening and closing it slowly.

It was night time so the halls seemed quiet and empty. She looked around trying to decide which way to go when she heard her name being called from behind.

She looked to the person who was now stumbling fast towards her.

"Mary Margaret!" They moved toward each other and embraced each other. Thankful to see a familiar face and both felt tears forming in their eyes. It wasn't every day you are reunited with your best friend.

**Authors Note: HAPPY NEW YEAR! Ok so hopefully you liked this chapter. I know the story is going a little slow but the action and our favorite characters will come together soon, hopefully the next chapter. Please let me know what you think! Thanks for reading!**


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